SEMINAR
DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
1011 EB1 - 10:45 AM
Engineering education in five years (or sooner)
Dr. Richard Felder
Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
North Carolina State University
Engineering education is currently in a turbulent period. Chronic industry complaints about skill deficiencies in engineering graduates in an increasingly globalized environment, government commission reports supporting those complaints, and the outcomes-based program accreditation systems in America (ABET), Europe (Bologna), and elsewhere in the world (the Washington Accord) all call for major transformations in the ways engineering curricula are structured, delivered, and assessed. High student attrition rates in the first two years of engineering and a growing ability of on-line universities to compete successfully for college applicants heighten the push for reform. As might be expected, many faculty members and administrators are less than enthusiastic about proposed changes, arguing that the existing system functions well and needs no radical revision.
The ongoing debate involves four focal issues:
1. How should STEM curricula be structured?
2. How should STEM courses be taught and assessed (and what role will technology play)?
3. Who should teach?
4. How should the teachers be prepared?
This talk outlines the opposing positions on each of these issues—the traditional position, which has been the predominant approach of the past five decades, and the alternative position—and offers predictions about the probable outcomes.